Listen. You might learn something meaningless.

soul meets body.

Here one day, gone the next. That’s the way it goes, right? Figuratively speaking, soul and body are together until body has enough and soul soars above or below or maybe just disintegrates along with body. I don’t really associate with any major religion or spiritual preoccupation but I do believe that we are all accountable to something. Accountable to our own subconscious, accountable to our own kind, accountable to a higher source of energy, be it the sun, the stars or Special K breakfast cereal. Perhaps it is simply accountability to our past, be it our ancestors, our evolutionary paths, the blades of grass we have walked amongst for tens of thousands of years. We could very easily track through scientific findings to our origins of the base chemical elements and the minute atoms, protons, electrons and neutrons that started the whole chain of movement. We all know the old saying, ‘one minute we are atoms, the next we are Adams!’ Alright, I made that one up.

The day the soul married the body, if that ever actually occurred in the first place, when the two said to each other ‘‘Til death do us part’, was the day I propose that organised society begun. We can talk hammers, opposable thumbs, culture and kindred spirits, but really when we talk society, we talk communities, common goals and connections. Sure, minute organisms probably swam together, ate together, split down the middle together, communicated in their innate language together but I would bet they weren’t leaking salty residue as Mufasa fell to his death in a fictional animation flick back in the early 90s. I would bet that they didn’t see Tywin Lannister being murdered on his own throne in his private quarters in the most recent Game of Thrones season ender. Of course, I’m only being ridiculous. I saw it coming because I’d read the books… or the Wikipedia page… same thing right?

Perhaps it is our desperation to find meaning that we start to believe in a soul and a higher meaning as a lot of terrible things are happening around us that we have no control of. We can scream at the top of our lungs individually for things to slow down and stop as the Ukraine- Russia crisis continues to wage on, as the Arab-Israeli conflict persists intermittently and the world gets hungrier and thirstier to no avail. As a group, maybe we can affect some sort of change for the future of our planet. As a society, we could overturn the things that haunt us if we are on the same page. But the same page for Australia is not the same page for Sudan, which is certainly not the same page as Denmark, which is just as likely not to be the same page for Egypt. So when believing in the nation-state becomes inapplicable and as unlikely to turn around as a sinking ship, the only thing we can really believe in is some sort of higher source of energy. For some, that is an almighty being, for others that is reliance on scientific fact and development, for others it is the gun, it is the dollar, it is the constitution or it is the white picket fence that protects them from the outside world.

Call me stupid, call me naïve, call me Cornholio (I need TP for my bunghole), I believe in the metaphysical notion of the soul. Not for eternal life, not for the sake of knowing my soul and body will separate and my morose thoughts and I will mosey on, but for the notion of accountability to something greater. We live in an age of anxiety and expectation that is being duly struck down by entities and individuals taking advantage of our growing vulnerability. Groups are divided, and will remain divided for a very long time due to our allegiances, nonsensical or otherwise, to entities, individuals, cults and ideas. Football codes, political movements, fast food chains, leaders, religions, nations, races, cultures, borders, oceans, valleys, temples, estates, smiles, promises and beliefs are dividing us to the point where we are starting to lose touch with the most basic of connections. Our connection to our origin; the sperm, the egg and the womb. Through that stems my desire to remain spiritually connected to the only thing that seems to unite large groups anymore. The spirit, whatever that may truly be, of human life. The soul.

I can’t make up my mind on whether we’re just making this shit up as it comes or part of something bigger. I mean, who am I to comment on the essence of life. We all have questions, some of us even offer up answers on why we are here. Some of them even make their theories sound very believable despite the lack of any scientific evidence and an overdose of overconfident drivel and lacerated rationality. It is the question that will survive until the sun burns up, the moon begins to fall and we all loot the buildings of Apple looking for answers on how they managed to convince us that wasting our lives in front of a tiny screen was actually not a bad use of our seemingly valuable, yet very short lives.

‘Why are we here?’ and even more necessary, ‘what were we supposed to believe in?’ See, belief in something bigger than us is an important facet of our lives. Everyone believes in something, be it inevitable pain and suffering or a higher power who submits his subjects to pain and suffering. Who can blame the 7 billion human occupants of this planet for wanting something to believe in minus disingenuous conservative fiscal policy and the almighty fear that lingers in our bedrooms at night? Just having something to believe in is enough to allow people to chase a dream, a successful life, and a family. Now, this may sound a little like I’m endorsing belief for the sake of believing. I exist in the school of thought that extremism in any shape or form is completely irrational and quite frankly, dangerous. However, I am of the opinion that we cannot simply succumb to nihilism and cynicism. I just want to believe in something. A song, a sense of community, the warm, enchanting body of a woman next to me, a dream, a spirit.

My greatest fear is that one day someone will wake up and yell to the world that there is nothing we can feasibly believe in anymore and everyone will listen. They won’t even look in each other’s eyes, touch that other person’s hand and see a portion of their own very essence, a slice of their very own souls. They’ll just go into their respective dwellings and wait to die. Maybe I’m wrong. Everyone might just throw his or her hands up; get high and party until it’s all over. Now there is something I believe in.